Three-D Issue 20: Leveson aftermath & the Royal Charter

By mid-March, David Cameron got tired of discussing media reform and decided to force a Parliamentary vote on the issue – seeking to impose a Royal Charter instead of Leveson’s recommendations. After some last minute wrangling the Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and Labour had reached an agreement. Confusion reigned as each of the three parties sought to champion their interpretation of the agreement, but they all confirmed that a Royal Charter would be the way forward.

The initial deadline for this issue of Three-D coincided with the Royal Charter agreement and as such many of the contributors generously revisited their articles to take account of these developments. Julian Petley provides an excellent overview of the Royal Charter and what it means, whilst Stuart Allan, Justin Schlosberg, Deborah Grayson, Granville Williams, Tim Gopsill and David Lee all provide different analysis of media reform and ways forward. Pat Holland meanwhile provides a healthy reminder for us not to forget the historical context.

Paul Lashmar and Steven Barnett’s have a lively exchange on Leveson and its implications for investigative journalism, reflecting different sides of the spectrum and MeCCSA’s diverse membership base.

We also feature James Curran’s keynote from the Derry conference in this issue, which, together with Karen Ross article, highlight issues and challenges for our subject areas.

Máire Messenger Davies reflects on the excellent MeCCSA Conference in Derry, whilst we also have the call for papers for our next conference in Bournemouth 2014.

Finally, we are also particularly pleased to be welcoming the recently established MeCCSA Social Movements Network to this issue!

If you would like to write for or advertise in the next edition of Three-D, please get in touch with me on ethorsen@bmth.ac.uk by September 2013. Suggestions for our website are also welcome.